Movie actor Moon Sung-keun, son of the late Moon Ik-hwan, is now a member of the South Korean delegation to Pyongyang for the inter-Korean sumit.

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

The late Rev. Moon Ik-hwan, a Presbyterian minister and dissident who frequented the headlines in the 1980s and 1990s, suffered numerous types of persecution under the past military governments that brooked no opposition.

There were many painful chapters in Moon’s turbulent life that saw him jailed five times while leading the pro-democracy movement.

But perhaps the most famous story would be Moon’s unauthorized visit to North Korea in 1989, which landed him a fiveyear prison sentence on charges of violating the National Security Law that bars contact with the North without prior approval.

Many South Koreans still vividly remember a visibly weakened Moon smiling to the crowd upon his early release in 1993, just a year before he died at the age of 76 due to heart ailments.

Fast forward to 2007, and it’s hard to miss history’s irony that has Moon’s 54-year-old movie star son booking a spot in Pyongyang as a member of the South Korean delegation for the threeday summit.

“My father had met former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung five times and talked about a wide range of subjects, some of which were reflected in the joint statement after the 2000 summit,” said Moon Sung-keun, who will arrive in Pyongyang in the backseat of a luxury car, something his father would never had imagined in his wildest dreams.

“Now, it’s up to me to inherit my father’s efforts and expand the discussions to a broader level,” said the actor, who visited Pyongyang in 2003 leading an official delegation of cultural figures.

The younger Moon is a memberof a 49-strong special delegation that includes social and cultural figures who will discuss with their North Korean counterparts ways to strengthen engagement between the two Koreas in their respective fields.

Moon expects to talk about a variety of topics, including establishing a regular channel for contact between the artists of both countries, sending a unified team of athletes to next year’s Beijing Olympics and strengthening cooperation in academic research such as history studies.

One of the plans is having scholars from the South and the North collaborate in writing a Korean language dictionary, an idea first hatched by the elder Moon in his 1989 visit. The proposed project aims at bridging the gap between the two Koreas in verbal culture that has widened over the past few decades.

“I proposed the idea for the Korean-language dictionary in my prior visit to Pyongyang in 2003. The (South Korean) government decided to support the project this year under a new law, so I am optimistic that the summit will produce substantial results on this subject,” said Moon.

Besides Moon, novelist Cho Jung-rae is also drawing attention among the special delegation. He is best known for his 1986 bestseller “Taebaek Sanmaek” (The Taebaek Mountains), a story based on the political struggles in South Korea after World War II that brought him both fame and notoriety.

In the controversial book, Cho casts a sympathetic look at a band of communist guerillas and their journey before and during the Korean War (1950-1953), which was enough for rightwing pundits to pin him as a North Korean sympathizer.

Taebaek’s film adaptation created quite a stir upon its 1994 release, with conservative groups even threatening to bomb theaters that showed the movie. The heated arguments resulted in Cho being sued by a group led by the descendents of former President Rhee Syngman over accusations of violating the National Security Law.

After debating the matter for over a decade, prosecutors cleared Cho of the charges in 2005. The fact that nobody is bothering to ruffle feathers over the 64-year-old novelist’s inclusion in the government delegation to the North, indicates how much things have changed in the last decade.

“It would be great if the writers from both Koreas could receive the freedom to cross the inter-Korean border to gather material for their stories and have their books published in both countries. This is a matter that I am looking forward to discuss at the summit,” said Cho.

Cho also plans to suggest a regular literature event involving artists from both Koreas to talk about the possibilities of South Korean writers supporting the artistic process of their North Korean counterparts. Kim Sang-keun, who heads the presidential National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC), is another member of the South Korean delegation who will cherish the Pyongyang visit.

The 67-year-old Presbyterian minister throughout his life has set an example for the trait of tolerance required for both Koreas to move toward better relations. Kim had first-hand experience of a brutal episode in Korea’s modern history, with his father was executed by communists during the Korean War.

Rather than dwelling on the painful memory, Kim used it to fuel his dedication by leading a grass-root movement for reunification as a religious leader and civic activist. His efforts are now more respected as South Korea moves further from its days of Cold War anxiety and authoritarian leadership.

“There could be heavy debates over our government’s engagement in a summit with North Korea. I hope people can find the olerance to think about the future and how history will remember us, and discuss what kind of legacy we will be leaving our children,” said Kim, who recently visited his father’s grave.

“The first inter-Korean summit produced a lot of results that contributed to peace in Northeast Asia and I hope this meeting can do the same,” he said. Chung Hyun-baek, a civic activist and Sungkyunkwan University history professor, has earned the reputation as one of South Korea’s prominent leftist scholars and feminists.

Now she gets a rare chance to meet North Korean women leaders to discuss their issues and strengthen cooperation. “I think we will spend a lot of time discussing ways to strengthen the relationship as we never really got a chance to communicate in the past,” said Chung, who also heads the Korean United Women’s Association.

“As women leaders, we can also talk about ways to strengthen cooperation between both countries in maternal and child health programs,” she said.

A better relationship between both Koreas could perhaps allow scholars from both countries more freedom to collaborate on joint projects. That is at least the hope of South Korean historians, who have long regretted their inability to inspect North Korean sites.

Such visits would be crucial for their studies of medieval kingdoms such as Koryo and more recent history, such as the struggle by Korean independent activists against Japan’s colonial government.

“The scholars of both countries have talked about collaboration in the study of history for a long time and it now looks like an achievable goal. We can also suggest building a regular channel for state-institutions of both countries to share advancements in their studies,” said Lee Suhoon, of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Cooperation Initiatives.